The Cubs, long baseball’s lovable losers, ended a 71-year run without appearing in the World Series Saturday night by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 to take the National League Championship Series, four games to two.

With baseball’s best record during the regular season, the Cubs appear poised to sweep aside the Curse of the Billy Goat, the specter of Steve Bartman deflecting a foul ball in 2003, and decades of disappointment and near-misses during the Hall of Fame careers of Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Ryne Sandberg.

Finally, no more waiting until next year.

The Cubs last appeared in the Fall Classic in 1945, about a month after the end of World War II when many of the game’s best players were still serving in the military. They lost the seven-game series to the Detroit Tigers, and subsequently failed six times with a chance to clinch their 17th National League pennant since the playoffs were expanded in 1969.

That misery ended with Saturday night’s surprisingly easy victory over Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw, which touched off a wild celebration on Chicago’s North Side and ended the longest drought in professional sports without an appearance in a championship round or game.

The Cubs now advance to the World Series, which they have not won since 1908 —the longest current championship drought for a National League team. They will face the Cleveland Indians, which, perhaps fittingly, own the longest title drought in the American League, having last won it all in 1948.

How long has it been since the Cubs last played in the World Series? The transistor radio, microwave oven, credit card, jet passenger airplane and Elmer’s glue had not yet been invented.

Quincy and West-Central Illinois have always had an affinity for the Cubs. Mel and El Tappe. Rick and Paul Reuschel. Jimmy Qualls. The Quincy Cubs, a Midwest League affiliate that played in old Q Stadium from 1965 to 1973.

There perhaps was no bigger Cubs fan than the late Chuck Brady, whose writing graced The Herald-Whig sports pages for more than four decades. With each disappointing season, he would smile and optimistically predict that “next year” would be the year.

Cubs fans, rejoice. Next year is here.

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October 23, 2016

Rockford Register Star

Write-ins, blanks are options for disgruntled voters

Many voters will be tempted to write in a candidate for president because they are disgusted with the Republican and Democratic nominees and can’t bring themselves to vote for a Libertarian.

It’s not that simple.

Illinois is one of 34 states that require a write-in presidential candidate to file paperwork before an election in order for votes for that candidate to be counted. In nine states, write-in voting for presidential candidates is not permitted. Only seven states allow write-in candidates without requiring them to file paperwork.

If you wanted to write in Bernie Sanders or Ted Cruz or Mickey Mouse, those votes wouldn’t be counted unless you lived in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Iowa or Oregon.

However, there is an extensive list of men and women who have registered to be write-in candidates at mytimetovote.com. Your vote would count if you chose one of them.

A better option for disgruntled voters, in our view, would be to leave the space blank. It’s like voting “none of the above” without filling in the oval.

Those under-votes are counted and if there are enough of them it might prod the political parties to provide better candidates in the future, although we wouldn’t bet on that.

When given a choice, we think people should make a decision on one candidate or another. Somebody is going to win and you should have a say in who that somebody is.

In this election season, however, there are people of good conscience who find the candidates so distasteful that they can’t make a choice.

Voters do have options when they step into a polling place, and it’s important to understand the extent of those options.

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October 20, 2016

The (Bloomington) Pantagraph

Hats off to state mansion restoration project

The renovation of the Illinois Executive Mansion in Springfield isn’t on the same scale as Jackie Kennedy’s renovation of the White House, but the reasons - and the overall plan - have some parallels.

The mansion is old, run-down, even dangerous in places, but it should be a showpiece for visitors to the state’s Capitol and sites tied to Abraham Lincoln and Frank Lloyd Wright. The governor and family shouldn’t be expected to live among peeling paint and broken banisters. The basement mold has been erased and the leaky roof replaced, but the state should be embarrassed to have such a ramshackle building in plain sight.

Such was the case with the White House when the Kennedys entered in 1961. In Illinois, First Lady Diane Rauner has devised a private fundraising effort to pay for the $15 million renovation that will open the governor’s mansion to visitors for years to come. About $4.5 million has been raised, with $1 million of that coming from the Rauners.

Last week, the state announced the Rauners would move to the Illinois State Fairgrounds for the 18-month duration of the renovation, living in a house provided for the fair’s executive director. The mansion will close to public tours in January.

“When it reopens, the Illinois Executive Mansion will feature art exhibits that showcase Illinois artists, and an educational visitors center for school groups, along with some much needed updating,” Diana Rauner said in a statement.

Work on the 161-year-old home at 410 E. Jackson St. will include updates to the private residence, mechanical systems upgrades, landscape and grounds improvements, security enhancements and making the home accessible to people with disabilities.

The Rauners have said they want the work done before the state’s bicentennial in 2018. The privately funded renovation work will be done in conjunction with the Illinois Capital Development Board, which oversees state building projects.

The Chicago Tribune in July referred to the mansion as “the state’s most embarrassing fixer-upper,” describing overgrown gardens, crumbling bricks, sagging balconies and missing spindles. Diana Rauner’s plan includes adding a visitor’s center, a mini-museum of Illinois art, sloped pathways instead of the (currently broken) elevator and an updated kitchen in the private quarters.

If the project came at the expense of state money, it’s doubtful either Rauner (Diana is a Democrat, Bruce a Republican) would argue the need to spend crucial dollars on a building rather than on people. Diane Rauner has said the private fundraising will provide the means to get the work done without tapping into money meant for education, the poor or health care.

Both Rauners seem to thrive on fighting through people who say “no.” Let’s hope their dedication to this cause has a big payoff for the people of Illinois.